Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Team Mascot Charlie

Astute observers of the credits in My Japanese Coach will notice an entry for our team mascot, Charlie. Charlie is my dog, a long-haired chihuahua, and he goes to work with me every day. One of the nice things about working at a video game company is the relaxed, laid back atmosphere. It's so laid back that they let us bring our pets in. Some people bring their pets to work once or twice a month, and others, like me, bring their pets to work everyday. Charlie's almost 3 years old, and we got him from a rescue shelter when he was about 7 months old. He just sits in his bed on my desk, usually sleeping all day, burrowed under his blanket. He's well-known throughout the company. My boss always says that many people won't know who I am if he refers to me by name, but they always know who Charlie is. To most of the people in the company, I am known as "Charlie's owner." Every year, we have a Halloween party at the company, and my wife and I always dress up Charlie. Last year, we found a hot dog pet costume he could wear for Halloween. A few weeks later, our company decided to have a hot dog eating contest (in correlation with the Major League Eating game we eventually released on WiiWare), so it was, of course, the perfect opportunity to wear the costume again.

This is probably one of the best aspects of working at Sensory Sweep. Pets are known to relieve stress, and they lengthen your life. Just imagine how much better your work day would be if you could have your pet at work with you.

Ugh, not all pets relieve stress or lengthen life. Some pets pee on the carpet and won't stop barking. :)

On a non-related note, do you think Charlie would like some female companionship? Because I know of a nice little Chihuahua that Charlie might like, and I bet her owners would give her away for FREE. ;)

P.S. I'm writing from Italy, I've been meaning to ask you when My Japanese Coach will be released here. I read somewhere that there is an Italian edition for the game, but the release date has been postponed. Does your company has anything to do with international releases? I know this might be a stupid question! Sorry about that! Thank you anyway,

I'm not exactly sure when My Japanese Coach will be released in Europe. It's entirely up to Ubisoft. If I had to guess, I would think they'd want to release it before Christmas. And it's in English, not Italian, so it may only be released in English speaking countries. You might be better off importing it. My Chinese Coach, however, was localized in several languages.

About Me

I've been married five years, and live in Lehi, Utah. I'm a video game programmer at Sensory Sweep, in Salt Lake City. I'm also a musician, with the piano as my main instrument. I also play the organ, and sing wherever I get the opportunity.